Forty-one punished over China restaurant collapse killing 29

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 29, 2020 shows the rescue site of the collapsed restaurant in Xiangfen County of Linfen City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Xinhua/Yang Chenguang)

TAIYUAN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Forty-one civil servants in north China's Shanxi Province have been held accountable for a restaurant collapsing. It killed 29 people in August 2020, said the provincial emergency management department on Monday.

They received Party disciplinary and administrative punishments and other penalties for dereliction of duty.

According to the investigation, the collapse was caused by illegal reconstruction and expansion, which led to poor structural integrity and overloaded load-bearing components of the building.

In violation of relevant laws and regulations, the owner obtained construction permission without examination and started reconstruction and expansion without a professional design and construction qualification.

Now under criminal detention, the restaurant owner was suspected of committing the crime of jeopardizing public security dangerously, said local police in September 2020.

Leaving 29 people dead and 28 injured, the deadly collapse happened on Aug. 29, 2020, and caused a direct economic loss of 11.64 million yuan (about 1.8 million U.S. dollars).